I have what everyone around here calls crabgrass but I'm pretty sure is Bermuda grass (it has those long runners). It started around the fenceline outside of my garden but grew inside. When I put in the raised planter beds I layed cardboard down to try and keep weeds from growing up but it didn't stop the grass. I don't get any other weeds in my bed except this stuff. I'm trying to get ready for planting season (zone 9a so I'll be planting in 2 mos) and was hoping to get rid of most of this stuff before then. My question is what kills bermuda without making it so that I can't grow stuff for months afterwards? I can't move my raised beds at this point so it isn't an option to get at the grass from below. It also is raining here about 3 out of 7 days a week right now so I need something that won't wash off when it rains. If killing it directly in the beds is not an option so close to planting season then if there is something someone can recommend that I can use around the beds that wont leach into the soil under the beds (stuff I can spray that will stay put), that will at least help minimize what's coming up IN the beds. Thank you in advance for any advice.
Bermuda grass in raised beds
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Beth_B
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Is pulling it up (regularly) an option, in the areas where you don't want it?
Creeping charlie is a plague where I live... Absolutely nothing I know of that will eradicate it without eradicating everything else. So I weed by hand in the areas I don't want it, and let it be everywhere else.
Heavy mulching with organic material (straw, wood chips) will inhibit and weaken weed growth.
Creeping charlie is a plague where I live... Absolutely nothing I know of that will eradicate it without eradicating everything else. So I weed by hand in the areas I don't want it, and let it be everywhere else.
Heavy mulching with organic material (straw, wood chips) will inhibit and weaken weed growth.
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Bermuda grass is one of the most invasive plants there is. It is almost impossible to get rid of. I only know of 2 ways to eliminate it. One is to erect a physical barrier such as a metal substance buried at least 4 inches deep around your beds and continuous labor to keep it from climbing over. The other is to use (I hate to utter the words) a glysophate product such as Roundup. And even using Roundup you will have to keep applying it. You can apply a thick layer of mulch but all that will do is to make it a little easier to hand pull it up. Forget cardboard. Plastic works but as soon as you remove it the grass is right back again. By all means DO NOT TRY TO TILL IT OUT. If you do you will have multiplied the problem x 100.
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If it's actually Bermuda Grass (and not Crab Grass), I have experience, because my entire yard (on the east side) was Bermuda Grass. And my neighbors yard, to the east is still Bermuda Grass. So I have a very large area to keep it out of, it seems like a raised bed would be easier. How high is it raised?
I don't use any chemicals at all in my yard. As I said, my entire east side of my yard had BG and that's because my west side has large trees, such as Oaks, Magnolia, Sweet Gum, which provides large amounts of shade and that's the Achilles' heel of BG. So what I did was till all the BG into the soil and then heavily mulched my garden, shading it out.
I did and continue to find a few strands of BG attempting to grow out of the mulch in search of sunlight, but since it's so necessary for it to get some sunlight it can't spend the energy to grow its roots, so it's very easy to pull out; normally the roots of BG grow very deep into the ground, but when it's starved of sunlight, it must grow up first, meaning its root system is not anchored in the soil.
As the summer approaches much of my plants do the rest in shading out the BG.
As for creating a barrier around an area that you want to BG keep out, I think that's a good idea, I just haven't done it, because my area is too vast.
I don't use any chemicals at all in my yard. As I said, my entire east side of my yard had BG and that's because my west side has large trees, such as Oaks, Magnolia, Sweet Gum, which provides large amounts of shade and that's the Achilles' heel of BG. So what I did was till all the BG into the soil and then heavily mulched my garden, shading it out.
I did and continue to find a few strands of BG attempting to grow out of the mulch in search of sunlight, but since it's so necessary for it to get some sunlight it can't spend the energy to grow its roots, so it's very easy to pull out; normally the roots of BG grow very deep into the ground, but when it's starved of sunlight, it must grow up first, meaning its root system is not anchored in the soil.
As the summer approaches much of my plants do the rest in shading out the BG.
As for creating a barrier around an area that you want to BG keep out, I think that's a good idea, I just haven't done it, because my area is too vast.